Responses continues to pour in from the Street regarding Apple’s (AAPL) presentation yesterday of iCloud, OS X “Lion,” and iOS 5 at its Worldwide Developer Conference.
Currently, the stock is up $1.39, or 0.4%, at $339.43. in pre-market trading, after having sold off during the conference yesterday. As I mentioned yesterday afternoon, the immediate response was an increase in some iPad estimates, based on numbers given out by the company — more than 25 million iPads sold to date.
Today comes more thorough reflection upon what analysts regard as Apple’s “ecosystem,” and on the whole the response is extremely positive:
Kevin Dede, Brigantine Advisors: Reiterates a Buy rating on Apple and a $400 price target. “While the software appears to be wonderful in providing new features and fixing gaps, the real surprise was in the pricing. The new Mac OS is only $30, about $100 less than normal, while the iCloud services are gratis with iOS 5. We believe the capabilities could go a long way to selling more Apple hardware.” Apple could beat his estimate for $5.70 in EPS this quarter, based on what may be 8.3 million iPads sold in the quarter.
Mike Walkley, Canaccord Genuity: Reiterates a Buy rating, whie raising his price target by five bucks to $485. “We are impressed with Apple’s new product announcements […] reinforcing Apple’s leading vertically integrated hardware/software ecosystem. In particular, we believe iCloud’s ability to automatically and seamlessly integrate applications, data, photos, and video files across Apple’s full line of iOS and MacOS Lion powered devices should drive increased customer loyalty, resulting in recurring software and hardware purchases.” Walkley sees Apple selling 7.9 million iPads this quarter, more than he’d expected. He raised his full-year EPS estimate to $24.31 from a prior $23.51.
Robert Cihra, Caris & Co.: Reiterates a Buy rating and a $500 price target, while keeping his estimates the same. “Much more than just a simple back-up, sync or music streaming service, we consider iCloud a whole new, if not “ultimate,” leg to Apple’s ability to grow and leverage its booming iOS thin- client strategy, closed- loop iTunes relationship, and software-driven ecosystem. We continue to think investor fixation on next-gen iPhone 5 timing misses the point, as it’s the Platform not the Device that matters.” |
